Petitioners want to add new ailments to Connecticut's medical marijuana program. Find out which ones.

A state board of physicians will consider whether to add three more medical conditions to the list of ailments that allow people to buy and use marijuana in Connecticut.

The Medical Marijuana Board of Physicians is scheduled to meet on March 11, when it will consider petitions to add amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease; fabry disease; and ulcerative colitis to the list of medical conditions that allow a person to buy and use marijuana.

ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that robs people of the use of their muscles and can lead to total paralysis. Fabry disease is an inherited condition in which fat builds up in the cells, resulting in hearing loss, gastrointestinal problems, cloudiness in the cornea and potentially deadly complications such as kidney damage, heart attack and stroke. Ulcerative colitis is a chronic, inflammatory bowel disease.

State law currently allows residents 18 or older to register as medical marijuana patients if they have any of the following conditions: cancer, glaucoma, HIV or AIDS, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, intractable spasticity related to nerve damage in the spinal cord, epilepsy, cachexia, wasting syndrome, Crohn's disease or post-traumatic stress disorder.

This is the second wave of petitions to expand the medical marijuana program.

Several other conditions could be added soon: sickle cell disease; severe psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis; and post-laminectomy syndrome with chronic radiculopathy — recurring back pain after surgery. Petitioners asked for those conditions to be added. The state medical marijuana program's board of physicians reviewed them and recommended they be added to the list of existing conditions. The board of physicians declined to add Tourette syndrome.

The marijuana program is part of the state Department of Consumer Protection, overseen by Commissioner Jonathan A. Harris. Harris agreed with the doctors' recommendations and drafted regulations in February to add the conditions.

The draft regulations will go through a review process, including a hearing and public comment period, review by the attorney general, and then a final vote by the General Assembly's regulation review committee. Harris said the process could take a year, but he hopes it would be done in six to nine months.